The stunning mountains and gorgeous views being wrecked by fly-tipping
At the highest point in Nelson we meet the people left frustrated by the 'sheer laziness' of those who tip waste on their doorsteps
Hello and welcome to The Valleys Lead.
This week, I’m going to share with you a story that nearly everyone I know in the South Wales Valleys has been talking about, fly-tipping.
Our valleys have some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world, and yet so many times when we go out to enjoy it, there is heaps of rubbish scattered everywhere.
We’re not just talking about littering, a tissue here or a bottle there, we’re talking mass amounts of rubbish quickly chucked in quiet areas, so that it all goes under the radar.
Today, I’ll be taking you to Nelson, where I went to speak with one resident who told how frustrating the fly-tipping, and lack of action from the local council, has been.
If you’ve got similar fly-tipping stories from the South Wales Valleys, I’d love to have a chat, so please get in touch at valleys@thelead.uk .
Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who has been in touch thus far with story tips. Rest assured, if you come to me with a story, discretion can be guaranteed. Get in touch at valleys@thelead.uk or via Bluesky or Instagram.
For now, all the newsletters are free, but soon enough, some of our exclusive reporting will be only for subscribers.
If you want to support The Valleys Lead, it’s free to subscribe. Paid subscribers get a bit more for only £4.99 a month, or £49 a year.
It’s also free to share. And it would be a hugely appreciated if you did share The Valleys Lead with all your friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. Thank you.
The Valleys Briefing
(A little round-up of some stories in brief from our valleys.)
🏘️ The RCT Council Cabinet is due on Monday to discuss proposals to spend £2.5 million to buy a row of houses Ynysybwl, and demolish them. In 2020, Storm Dennis nearly killed residents on Clydach Terrace. Since then, they’ve lived in fear of the river outside their homes. Plaid Cymru MS Heledd Fychan said she has been “working for years” for action to be taken for residents, but many now have mixed emotions about the announcement as they would have preferred investment in a solution that would have meant they could have continued living in their homes. “So whilst there is relief, I know there is also a great deal of sadness,” she wrote on Facebook.
🏥 A revamp of maternity and neonatal service at The Grange, Gwent’s biggest hospital, has been backed by health chiefs. The services are currently below national average standards, and the revamp, to include a transitional care unit and a reallocation of beds to provide postnatal and post-operative care for maternity patients, should fill what a previous report described as a “notable gap in the support available” in the neonatal unit.
🏦As we’ve seen on many high streets in the valleys, yet another bank branch is closing. Merthyr’s Santander has announced their closure, “another disappointment for the town centre,” wrote Labour MP Gerald Jones. In the last three years, nearly 100 banks in the whole of Wales have vanished from high streets, raising concerns about how those who aren’t able to access online banking will be able to access money. "
Fly-tipping at the highest point in Nelson. “Nothing has been done.”
Ashlee Matts, 32, has been living on a farm in Nelson, at the lower end of the Taff Bargoed Valley, with her family for 20 years.
She asked if I could meet her to see the extent to which the beautiful land two minutes from her home had been tarnished by fly-tipping.
Straight away, when we got out of our cars, there were piles of rubbish – bed springs, jacuzzies, decking, beds, sofas, household waste, building materials, glass and so much more – lining a two-mile walking path around the “mountain” accessed by people and animals on a daily basis.
“The fly tipping is generally household and garage cleanouts,” she told The Valleys Lead. “It appears like people advertise waste removal, garden clearance, general builders waste, and then they will come up and do a massive offload up the mountain to save money and then set it alight.
Ashlee and her father have both complained to the council three times, and reported the fly-tipping to the police but she said “nothing has been done.”
“They would just confirm someone would be up to clean it,” she said.
A spokesperson from Caerphilly County Borough Council told The Valleys Lead: “All reports of fly-tipping received by the Environmental Health Enforcement Department are investigated, and legal action is taken where appropriate. In some cases, fly-tipping occurs on land not owned by the council, such as private or common land. Where this happens, officers contact the landowner to request removal of the waste and will consider further action if it poses a significant public health risk.”
Only a few months ago, Ashlee’s dad was walking the dogs up the mountain in the early hours of the morning before the sun came up and he caught a man and a woman setting rubbish on fire.”
“This was caught on video and my dad confronted them, but excuses were made and without actual footage of the rubbish being removed from the car nothing could be come from it,” she said.
She’s clearly disappointed that the scattered rubbish is an eye-sore in the middle of breathtaking scenery. In every direction, there are idyllic landscapes
“It’s a stunning mountain with gorgeous views that gets wrecked by sheer laziness of people,” she said. “Think it’s down to laziness and cost. It’s a cheap way for people to make some money. People won’t pay for a skip as they have to fill it themselves, so they’ll pay people to remove it, and they won’t care where it will go once it’s removed.”
She’s also worried about the impact of the rubbish on the people and animals walking.
“Dogs and animals run freely and will go towards the rubbish and can come away from it with god knows what,” she said. “People have no respect for the land or the cows and sheep that live on the mountain.”
If Caerphilly County Borough Council would make it easier for large household rubbish to be collected, she said perhaps that would make a difference.
“I think it’s great they’re trying to make people recycle more,” she said. “But I know rubbish adds up quickly sometimes and won’t be collected as quick, so maybe something could be done as an option on how this can be more accessible and easier?”
She also said that if council tax were to be just slightly raised, perhaps someone could be hired to go around with a big skip to collect or book in waste collection.
Ultimately, Ashlee thinks it comes down to community members to take responsibility.
“Check who is collecting your rubbish and confirmation of where it is going,” she concluded. “But sadly, some people just don’t care as long as it is gone quickly and cheaply.”
“I’m more inclined and lean towards political parties that try to prevent and help with fly tipping, you loose trust and faith in current parties that don’t do anything to help or prevent.”
Fly-tipping isn’t just a problem in Nelson, but in many of the South Wales Valleys.
Last Thursday, 29 January, Members of the Senedd gathered alongside Keep Wales Tidy, the marine Conservation Trust, and Fly-tipping Wales in Cardiff Bay to discuss Manifesto Proposals from the Cross-Party Group on Littering, Fly-tipping, and Waste Reduction.
They’re meeting off the back of mounting concerns regarding fly-tipping throughout Wales. There’s been a 20 per cent increase in reported fly-tipping incidents in Wales between 2020 and 2024, and a 2025 survey found that 86 per cent of a people in Wales said reducing litter and fly-tipping should be a priority for the Welsh Government.
Delyth Jewell, South Wales East MS and Plaid Cymru’s Deputy Senedd leader and Climate Change spokesperson, whose office is based in Nelson, told The Valleys Lead: “This is an issue that blights our communities, damages our environment, and places an unfair burden on local authorities and on the public. This is not just an environmental issue but affects the pride we take in our area. It’s unacceptable that it keeps happening.”
She said that to start solving this problem in Nelson, and in the rest of the Valleys, we “need to tackle this in terms of attitudes, but I also think we need to be increasing fines for people who fly-tip time and time again. Of course, we must ensure that councils are making it as easy as possible to dispose of waste in an accessible way - but that is no excuse for blighting our landscape in this way.”
While Jewell commends the community groups of volunteers who pick litter up with Keep Wales Tidy and other, she concluded that “they should never have to do this in the first place.”